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Friday 19th October 2007

Western Digital joins multi-terabyte hard disk club 10:50AM, Friday 19th October 2007

Western Digital has followed Hitachi into the multi-terabyte hard disk club with the announcement that it will be rolling out 3TB high density drives to desktops by 2010.

Using a combination of perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) and tunnelling magneto-resistive (<



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TMR) technology, the drive maker can now squeeze 560Gb onto each square inch of disk surface - which it claims is the industry's highest demonstrated density to date using continuous media.

That density means that a standard 3.5in hard drive can store 640GB per platter and as much as 3TB in total, although Western Digital thinks we will have to wait until 2010 before they are commercially available.

Unlike Hitachi, which is relying on a slightly different technology in its efforts to squeeze as much as 1000Gb/in² on a disk, Western Digital is sticking with the tried and tested.

"The milestone was realised using our current-technology MgO reader, illustrating the extendibility of PMR-TuMR head technology generations into the future," says chief technology officer Hossein Moghadam.

Simon Aughton

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